Five More Acres (2006)
Le Cadeau produced approximately 1,200-cases of wine in 2006 from ten producing acres of vines. But with the critical acclaim of the 2003, 2004, and 2005 Le Cadeau wines, demand for Le Cadeau wine greatly exceeded our supply. Since it takes 4-years for grape vines to produce meaningful quantities of fruit, and then another 18-months before the wine goes to market, we made the decision to plant another 5-acres.
We had first planted a small block of 114 in the northeast corner of our property in 2002. By working out an arrangement with our enthusiastic neighbors, Bryan and Lisa Rose, we were able to add another half-acre of 114-clone on land contiguous to our existing 114 block. Additionally, at the highest elevation of the Rose property (780-feet) we planted a half-acre of the early-ripening Dijon-777 clone. In this case, we have experience with the clone, but we can expect different outcomes due to the soils and elevation in this new planting.
Within the Le Cadeau site, we planted a 2.25-acre block in the Southeast corner of our property. Along the west side of the property we extended the original Pommard block with additional Pommard plantings. Finally, we also expanded the always intensely flavorful west-667 block with additional plantings of Dijon-667.
In 2009 we had the opportunity to harvest our first fruit from these Fall-2006 plantings. In 2011 the plants will be in full production. Assuming normal crop levels are set, Le Cadeau case output will grow to approximately 2,000-cases of wine to be released in 2013.